Atlanta, Georgia’s MonstrO will be rolling into Bonnaroo in a few weeks with a handful of warm up dates under their belts. The four-piece will be headlining the Whisky in Los Angeles this Friday before opening for Danzig starting May 26 and making their way eastward to wind up in Manchester, Tennessee for the Bonaroo Music Festival on Thursday, June 7. MonstrO has previously toured with Kyuss Lives! and recently wrapped up a national tour with Clutch and HellYeah.

MonstrO released the self-titled debut album in September of 2011 via Vagrant Records.

Glenn Danzig’s recent comments and alleged behavior at Fun Fun Fun Fest provoked much talk among the heavy metal community. Mainstream publications such as Rolling Stone brought this conversation to a much larger audience. Besides trying to instigate a riot, Danzig bemoaned playing the Black Stage. He said he is as big as Slayer, so he should be on the larger Orange stage. The Slayer comment sparked a debate among Metal Underground’s readers. Who is bigger and more popular—Slayer or Danzig? Now that the question has been asked, I’ve done some searching to determine who has a larger fan base.

In addition to providing album sales numbers, I will look at some of the factors that contribute to the popularity of both bands. On one side, we have the blues-laden doom metal of Danzig. Often characterized as the Satanic Elvis, Danzig possesses unmistakable, deep vocal tones and lupine howls. Short but muscular, his mic-whipping, air-grabbing stage antics convey a barbaric image. On the other side, we have thrash metal legends, Slayer. In addition to being part of the Big 4 thrash acts of the 80s, they pushed the boundaries of speed, and broke ground for thrash, death and black metal. Kerry King's whammy bar solos perfectly relate the wicked vibe of each song. The battle cry of “SLAYEEEER” is as common at a metal concert as a Marshall half-stack.

Danzig showcased material as Danzig Legacy at Fun Fun Fun Fest, so Slayer is butting heads against not one band but three. The Misfits and Samhain portions of his set added a crossover appeal, which proved perfect for a fest that catered to punk and metal. Still, I’m going to assume that many of the Fiend Club members also listen to Danzig.

Besides Dave Lombardo, Slayer has boasted a stable lineup, without bringing over fans from previous bands. Kerry King spent time in Megadeth, but he doesn’t appear on any Megadeth albums, so he obviously didn’t pull fans from Megadeth. Fans will always recognize Dave Lombardo as Slayer’s drummer, even though he has commanded the beat for other bands such as Philm, Grip Inc. and Fantomas. More...

Other than battling dust devils and a short Misfits set, Austin’s sixth annual Fun Fun Fun Fest lived up to its name in the variety of activities it offered to patrons. Local acts to artists from across the world graced four stages catering to a variety of music styles. Rap, metal, electronic, funk, punk were just a few of the genres covered. Those with narrow musical tastes benefited best due to the long walks between stages, especially from the entrance to the Black Stage that hosted most of the heavy acts.

While the music of Fun Fun Fun Fest took center stage, those who wanted to rest their ears could watch comedy and wrestling at the Yellow Stage. The festival’s layout resembled a carnival with tents and trailers serving up the best of local cuisine. Even though few wore the traditional Texas-cowboy garb, bar the handkerchiefs for dust relief, one could experience a simulated rodeo experience on the back of a mechanical bull. Other tents were a gateway to video games. The PIP and Media areas were a maze of mesh walls and tents that offered smaller beer and rest room lines. The media tent featured special interview areas containing an influx of celebrities. Bewildered continence graced the faces of those witnessing film crews follow around celebrities in the creation of who-knows-what type of productions. Academy Award nominee Ryan Gosling made camera-hawked, back-stage appearances.

Friday’s lineup offered little in the way of metal, so I spent much of this day exploring the festival and hanging out in the media tent. Blake Anderson, the long, curly-haired slacker on Comedy Central’s “Workaholics” approached the tent with a lover of some sort. I directed the two towards the Heineken beer tent. Decked out in a fake mullet and mustache, Sergio “The Sexy Sax Man” Flores also frequented the media tent. He was scheduled to serenade a wedding at the festival. Even though his sax only produces the romantic notes of George Michael, he confessed his love for metal. He told me a story bringing the brass to death metal when he joined his friends The Faceless on stage. He dove into the crowd, creating fireplace harmonies before accidentally falling and cracking his head on the floor. More...

Danzig played a short set at Fun Fun Fest on November 4th, 2011. The ex-Samhain/Misfits crooner scheduled an hour-and-a-half set of Danzig, Misfits and Samhain material, but only played two Misfits songs. On Fun Fun Fun Fest's Facebook page, Graham Williams, the festival booker, comments on what may be the concert fiasco of the year

"Hi. I book the fest. Those that are hating could NOT be more wrong. Yes, someone has your money and ripped you off. His name is Glenn. Stop by his house in LA with some kitty litter in trade for your refund, but we still had to pay him and he didn’t deserve it after what he pulled. Here is how it went down…check the timeline:

-Glenn flies in this morning and says he has a cold and doesn't feel like playing the show. he demands french onion soup and vitamins brought to his hotel suite. He wants soup now and wants it hot. We get it.

-Glenn says it's freezing in Austin and he can't go on. He says it's going to be 28 degrees tonight and he won't perform (keep in mind, it's currently 71 and sunny with a night forecast of maybe 50+). He says we have to move the show/festival inside if we want him to play (obviously, that's not possible).

-We rent stage heaters (no other bands--Public Enemy, MCD, Passion Pit, etc need or want heaters on stage...it's warm up there and not cold out) for Glenn per demand, as well as bring in an onsite doctor to make him happy and be there if his cold doesn't go away.

-Agents and managers assure us he's going to play now.

-Glenn's band/crew arrive before him in the afternoon and load gear. They said it all works, they get up the Danzig banner, check lights and are happy.

-Glenn arrives at 7:45 (half hour before showtime, they go on at 8:15 exactly and have a 90 min. set...park curfew by the city/police is 10 PM sharp)...when he arrives, he says he's not going to play. (He) Says he doesn't like how the banners are hung on stage and doesn't like the lighting or stage size (all this was advanced in email and phone well in advance and the band/crew loaded in mid day and were happy with it and said it would work...stage wasn't small at all). He wouldn't leave his trailer to go look at the stage, though, so the lighting company drew up specs for him to look at of the stage lighting 50 feet from his trailer and brought it to him to look over and prove him wrong. More...

Fun Fun Fun Fest and Pitchfork announced today that the 6th annual festival in Austin, Texas will be streaming live on Pitchfork.com November 4 ­ 6, 2011. This will be the first time ever that the music of Fun Fun Fun Fest, one of the most progressive independent music festivals in the country, will be available to those outside of Austin, and live.

Unlike other music festivals with similar live streams, Fun Fun Fun Fest will present 4 separate streams with each tailored to different musical tastes, streamed live on one of the most widely read music websites in the world that reaches 3.3 million unique visitors each month. Like the Fun Fun Fun Fest stage setups, each stream will provide a different musical experience, from punk and metal to indie rock and electronica, from bounce and hip hop to competitions and comedy. Fans will be able to toggle the streams to cater to their favorite styles of music, thanks to smart, the quirky, irreverent car.

When asked about the new partnership, Pitchfork had this to say: "Fun Fun Fun Fest has absolutely become one of the great festivals in the country, one that shares the same spirit of adventurous booking and music- and fan-community focus that we bring to our own Pitchfork Music Festival and our other events," said Pitchfork President Chris Kaskie. "Pitchfork has produced a number of live streams in recent years, and we're thrilled to be producing the Fun Fun Fun Fest live stream this year, for the first time bringing the festival to music fans outside of Austin."

Pitchfork Fun Fun Fun Fest Live Stream Schedule:

Friday, Nov 4th at 12:20pm Central

Saturday, Nov 5th at 12:10pm Central

Sunday, Nov 6th at 12:15pm Central

To check out the Fun Fun Fun Fest live stream on Pitchfork, go to www.pitchfork.com.

"We are thrilled to be working with Pitchfork and smart on bringing what we do every year to more underground and progressive music fans around the world. Pitchfork and Transmission have always focused on many of the same acts, ideas, and trends ­ they are a like-minded group of people and it's exciting to see us working together in such an innovative way. Plus, we get to bring a little more Slayer and Turquoise Jeep to the PF pages, which is nice," said Transmission Principal James Moody.

Somehow humanity managed to avoid the apocalypse yet again yesterday, but just because a zombie Armageddon or nuclear holocaust didn’t occur doesn’t mean anybody has to get out of the proper Halloween mood. We already took a tour through some of the most over-the-top and bombastic horror themed videos last week, so this time around we’ll head into a bit darker territory. Today let’s give the devil and all his children their proper due…

Opeth – “The Devil’s Orchard”

One of the best cuts off Opeth’s latest album “Heritage” and among the best clips in a history of less-than-stellar music videos from the Swedish titans, “The Devil’s Orchard” may be a tale of the devil ascending to rule the world while bringing madness and terror in his wake. Or it might be about a dude in bell bottoms who only listens to vinyl going on a crazy acid trip. But whatever, it’s got the vibe of an old school devil flick, and that’s exactly what we’re looking for.

FUN FUN FUN Fest has announced the final lineup and set times for its sixth annual music festival, set for November 4-6 at Austin, TX's Auditorium Shores. The festival organizers have also announced the "FFF Nites" aftershow lineup, which will see a host of late night shows available free to FFFF 6 ticket holders (each based on capacity and type of ticket). The Fun Fun Fun Festival will begin on Friday, November 4 at noon CDT with the fest's multiple stages running until 9:45 pm each evening through the weekend. Each of the festival's four stages will be billed with artists from various genres.

In addition to Orange Stage headliner Slayer (moved from the "Black Stage" to accommodate a bigger stage show), FFFFest has ramped up its "Black Stage" heavy music platform again this year as genre giants The Damned, Murder City Devils, Cannibal Corpse, EyeHateGod, Boris, Russian Circles and Glenn Danzig -- performing Misfits songs with original Misfits guitarist Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein under the moniker "Danzig Legacy" -- and many more will light up the festivals darkest stage over the course of the three day event.

Sony Legacy has announced the release of a new, two disc Danzig compilation album on October 25th as part of the "Essential" series.

"The Essential Danzig" can already be pre-ordered on Amazon.com by clicking here, though the track listing and album artwork have yet to be revealed. More information on this release will be revealed as soon as it becomes available.

Helhorse has checked in with the following update about posting a video online and gearing up to support Danzig in July:

"Helhorse is having one hell of week! First we rock out in front of the amazing Copenhell audience. It was an awesome experience - thank you so much! A short video snippet is up here now, more to come.

"Then, Thursday night, we received the word that we are to support the amazing Danzig at Amager Bio July 6th. Danizig is one of our greatest heroes, and we are truly humbled and honoured to get such an opportunity. Tickets are on sale now - they are going fast, so click here and buy now. Later this week we will publish more amazing reviews from Germany, stay tuned. Rock on!" More...

Notable metal bands have been revealed to be taking part in the forthcoming Australian "Soundwave Revolution" tour. The four date trek, which features over thirty bands in total, will begin in Brisbane on September 24, 2011. You can view the list of confirmed metal bands as well as the tour dates below.

The organisers of Britain's largest hard rock and heavy metal festival, Download, has confirmed a further forty three names for this year's event, including such big names as Children of Bodom and Biohazard. The festival will be held at the legendary Donington Castle in Leicestershire from June 10th-12th.

The organizers of Britain's Download Festival has announced that three more bands have been confirmed for this year's event. The biggest announcement comes in the form of The Darkness, who have recently reunited and are expected to be releasing a new album by the end of the year.

Also confirmed for festival are Funeral For A Friend and Kverlatak. The event takes place at Donington Castle from June 10th - 12th and will feature the following lineup: More...

Orange County, California based hard rockers Avenged Sevenfold have been confirmed as the headliners for this year's edition of the Revolver Golden Gods Awards, which will take place on April 20th at the Nokia Centre in Los Angeles, California and will be televised by VH1 on May 28th.

Also performing at the show will be the original lineup of the Alice Cooper band, as well as Duff McKagen's Loaded, Devildriver, Asking Alexandria, Volbeat and Fozzy, who's lead singer Chris Jericho will also be hosting the event. Alice Cooper is also set to receive the eponymous Golden God award, while Motley Crue will be picking up the Ronnie James Dio Lifetime Achievement Award. The list of other nominees for the awards are as follows: More...

California metal act Devildriver has announced that they will be appearing as the direct support act on the forthcoming headline tour from Danzig. Also appearing on the bill will be modern metal act 2Cents. You can view the full list of dates, cities and venues below:

The organisers of the United Kingdom's Download Festival has announced that a further sixteen bands have been confirmed for the event, including such big names as Disturbed, Black Stone Cherry and Cheap Trick, along with Bring Me The Horizon, Sacred Mother Tongue, All That Remains, Bowling For Soup, Devil Wears Prada, Turisas, Frank Turner, Asking Alexandria, Straight Line Stitch, Madina Lake, The King Blues, Ghost and Jameson Raid. The event will take place at Donington Castle from June 10th-12th and features the following lineup:

The organisers of Britain's Download Festival has announced a further twenty more names for this year's event, in addition to the previously confirmed bands Linkin Park, System of A Down, Rob Zombie and Avenged Sevenfold. The festival will be held at Donington park from June 10th-12th.

This week saw the highly anticipated return of of Danzig’s BLACKEST OF THE BLACK tour. In its latest reincarnation since 2008, the tour’s lineup features Danzig, legendary Bay Area hell-thrashers Possessed and Swedish black metal pioneers Marduk, who are making a rare and long awaited U.S. touring appearance. Toxic Holocaust and Withered round out the bill. The tour kicked off in Albuquerque and will wrap up later this month in Anaheim.